


One Smile Alone

by voleuse



Series: Two Smiles Meet [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-05-30
Updated: 2006-05-30
Packaged: 2017-10-04 06:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>You strive to forget in vain</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Smile Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Pre-S7, no spoilers. Title, summary, and excerpts adapted from William Blake's _The Smile_.

"I saw what those Bringer guys can do.  
They tore apart my Watcher."  
\-- Bring On The Night  


 

_iii. betwixt the cradle and grave_

Maliyah is buried on a Tuesday, after midnight, her body laid atop another coffin in the family cemetary.

It's hasty, ignoble. Maliyah deserves better, but it's the best Kennedy can do.

She'd been teaching Kennedy how to kill, after all. Not what to do with the bodies afterwards. No worries about corpses when your kills turn to dust.

Kennedy resolved not to cry, because that would be dumb. She reminds herself as she digs, and as she shovels the dirt back over Maliyah's shrouded body.

When Rupert Giles walks up to her, hands her a handkerchief, she almost doesn't realize why.

_ii. it sticks in the deep back bone_

Kennedy arranges the body carefully, folding hands together. She shuts the eyelids gently, keeps her own eyes closed.

She covers the body with a sheet. She walks to the nearest bathroom, washes her hands thoroughly before vomiting into the toilet.

She turns the shower on, close to scalding, and stands under the water until she can't feel anything anymore.

She dries herself carefully, and dresses again.

There is an address book in Maliyah's room, she knows.

And there's a call she has to make.

_i. only one smile alone_

She's halfway across the lawn when she realizes everything is silent.

No footsteps following her. No blades whirring.

No screams.

Kennedy turns back to the house, and walks.

Her feet tread grass, then gravel, then parquet.

Then blood, and bone.

Kennedy stares down at Maliyah's body, and doesn't make a sound.


End file.
